


"Give Thrawn Flaws": Why Thranto Fans Ignore the Fact that Thrawn is a Villain

by StarWarsMeta



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Discussion welcome just keep in mind that I too am a thranto fan and i'm not here to bash, Fandom Analysis, Fandom Essay, Fascism, Gen, Genocide, Humor, It's okay to like villains, Manipulation, Meta, Slavery, That's the TLDR, The Galactic Empire Is The Worst (Star Wars), Thrawn's a villain and that's okay, You don't have to make them good guys to justify your love, character flaws, ship bashing will be deleted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29348019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarWarsMeta/pseuds/StarWarsMeta
Summary: He works for the Empire, guys. That's kind of a major flaw.
Relationships: Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo & Eli Vanto, Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Eli Vanto
Comments: 33
Kudos: 70





	"Give Thrawn Flaws": Why Thranto Fans Ignore the Fact that Thrawn is a Villain

**Author's Note:**

> In celebration of Thrawn, Thranto, and their mutual villainy. Fans love villains, myself included — so why are we so afraid to admit it, and why do we strive so hard to explain why our favorite villains actually aren’t villains at all? This essay examines possible reasons why.

“Give Thrawn flaws” — you see this sentiment echoed again and again in the author’s notes of various Thrawn fics. You see it on Tumblr, Twitter, Discord discussions. It’s a constant refrain of Thrawn fans, and it’s only increased since the release of _Chaos Rising._

The thing is, Thrawn has flaws. 

Working for the Empire is a pretty big flaw, for one thing. Thrawn actively works to advance the agenda of a military power obsessed with imperialism and humanocentrism. He actively works to keep Wookiees enslaved. He’s aware of the Death Star plans, and while admittedly he presents the Emperor with a possible alternative (his TIE Defender project), the existence of a planet-killing weapon is not enough to make Thrawn leave. 

Fans will bend over backwards to explain why Thrawn is actually right to do these things, and that sort of analysis is always fun, but it misses the point: Timothy Zahn has given Thrawn flaws — pretty damn massive ones — but nobody wants to focus on them.

For the sake of argument, though, let’s say that Thrawn’s “greater good” philosophy on Imperial service is correct, and that all of his bad or iffy deeds are justified. That leaves him pretty flawless, right? 

Well, let’s take _Thrawn_ (2017). This is a book filled with one flaw in particular: Thrawn is one manipulative bastard (said with full affection; I love me a manipulative bastard). From the moment he first meets Eli Vanto, he devotes himself to deceiving and manipulating him, while simultaneously disguising his manipulations with a “stupid naive alien” act, using Eli’s own biases against him. He pretends not to know Basic to manipulate Eli; he feigns social ignorance to manipulate Eli; he actively lies and uses Eli throughout the novel. 

No shade against Thranto; it's my favorite pairing, and Thrawn is my favorite character. I'm definitely not saying that nobody is allowed to ship this or like these characters, but...

...this _is_ a major character flaw, and it's one Thrawn continues to display throughout all books (including Legends). It seems that many Thranto fans would rather believe the naive alien act than acknowledge Thrawn's manipulative tendencies. They don’t consider stupidity, naivety, or social incompetence to be true flaws — firstly because they see these flaws as cute (evidenced by the sheer number of times they’re used in fluff fanfictions) and secondly because they relate to Thrawn more as a naive outsider than as a manipulative mastermind. That's not a bad thing; everyone knows what it's like to feel like an outsider, but it's kind of hard to relate to a genius warlord who can read his enemies' tactics through art.

But because they choose to ignore his manipulative tendencies, these fans start to think that canon!Thrawn has _no flaws at all_ and attack Zahn’s writing, clamoring for him to give Thrawn more flaws — for example, maybe he can’t cook. Maybe he’s got anxiety. Maybe he just really needs a hug and reassurance from time to time. These kinds of uninteresting Good Guy flaws are easily digested by a black-and-white society, and they allow fans to continue enjoying Thrawn without having to confront the fact that A) they believe it’s wrong to like fascist characters, and B) they are in fact still rooting for a fascist.

In sum: it's okay to ignore Thrawn's flaws, and it's okay to write fanfiction where his flaws are glossed over or ignored in favor of a domestic setting. It's also okay to like villains; liking an Imperial character does not in fact make you a fascist, and you shouldn't let anyone tell you otherwise or try to ruin your enjoyment of your favorite ship because they both work for the Empire. What's not okay is attacking other people's writing because they _do_ acknowledge his canon flaws. That's where this fandom trend crosses the line.

(Edit to Add: It's also not okay to tell meta writers to go kill themselves, just FYI.)

For what it’s worth, the same fans who complain about the lack of flaws in _Chaos Rising_ seem strangely hell-bent on ignoring one memorable quote:

 _“Where I see non-Chiss as assets, [Ar’alani] sees them as people.” —_ Thrawn

This is what we in the writing industry like to refer to as a "character flaw." And that’s not even getting into the old EU, where Thrawn deceived/enslaved the Noghri and destroyed an entire world for not conforming to his expectations based on their artwork. 

Essentially, what these fans are doing to Thrawn is the same thing Lucasfilm did when it turned Darth Vader into Anakin Skywalker. Vader is a true villain — his flaws, widely acknowledged by fans, include choking, torturing, and murdering people. Sometimes these people include his own kids. And people love him anyway (myself included). Anakin Skywalker’s flaws, as acknowledged by fans, include temper tantrums, copious amounts of angst, and recklessness. That's a whole different breed; you can like pre-Vader Anakin and still convince yourself that he's not a villain. Notably, when I see fans making comments like “Thrawn has no flaws,” I always check their profiles. Their bookmarks and works are filled with fics for the prequel trilogy and for _The Clone Wars_ and _Rebels_ ; the few original trilogy fics seen there are based on how Good and Pure Luke and Leia are.

These are fans who cannot handle Thrawn’s canon traits — traits which truly cement his grey morality and make him a villain. Specifically, these are fans who can't handle the fact that they _like_ a villain, because these are fans who subconsciously believe that liking a villain makes you a bad person. They would rather invent endearing “flaws” instead, but there’s a reason Zahn doesn’t include those endearing flaws in his writing. Here’s an example:

A friend approaches you and complains heartily about his new boss. “This guy’s been ruining my life for the past three years,” he says. “I’m at the end of my rope.”

“Why?” you ask him. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Well,” your friend says, “for one thing … he’s kind of introverted. He’s not the most open person emotionally. He can’t cook very well. Oh yeah, and he doesn’t take the best care of himself. Sometimes he just needs a loved one to step in and take care of him when he’s down.”

Does that sound likely? Maybe all those things are true about your friend’s boss, but why would he tell you those things instead of saying, “He’s manipulative. He has sociopathic tendencies. And oh yeah, he actively works to advance the agenda of a genocidal Empire run by Darth Sidious.”

Zahn shows us the flaws that are plot-relevant, nothing more. To do otherwise would make him a _shitty_ writer. If, as a fan, you don’t like Thrawn’s canon flaws and want him to be more like you, perhaps you should seek out other novels instead of waiting for Zahn to change Thrawn’s personality for you. Better still, we should all examine why we feel the need to justify our love for fictional characters in a modern world. You don't need a rock-solid moral reason to like Thrawn. You can just like Thrawn, warts and all.

**Author's Note:**

> This is tagged as Thranto because it specifically analyzes fandom in respect to the Thrawn/Eli Vanto. For fans searching for Thranto-specific meta, the Thranto tag is vital. Because of this, no, I will not be removing the tag.


End file.
